


Ryan Number One

by quackers



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Dom/sub Undertones, First Time Blow Jobs, M/M, Misunderstandings, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Porn with Feelings, Sort Of, Wrong Number AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-10
Updated: 2018-06-10
Packaged: 2019-05-20 12:47:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14894904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quackers/pseuds/quackers
Summary: Ryan wasn't expecting to get a dirty text from his best friend.Now he can't stop thinking about it.





	Ryan Number One

**Author's Note:**

> This was just meant to be smut practice, but some plot snuck it's way in. Oops.

_This ref is blind  
No one calls traveling anymore_

_> Please no_

_Thats what I said!_

_> I have a date in ten minutes, stop texting me basketball shit_

_Bigfoot found a mate. Don’t be a fool wrap your tool!_

Ryan laughed to himself as he reread the text conversation from a few hours ago. A year ago he had started making it a point to text Shane at least once whenever he was watching a game. He considered it fair payback for the travesty that was the Hotdaga. He considered a lot of things fair payback for that monstrosity, actually. 

The time on his phone ticked over to midnight exactly and he sighed. They had a meeting tomorrow at an ungodly hour. To be fair, that just meant that it was at nine in the morning. He knew for most ‘working adults’ that wasn’t early, but he had grown used to the lax nature of working at BuzzFeed. As long as he wasn’t late for a shoot, he could roll into work any time before eleven and most people didn’t care. Not that he didn’t work hard or anything, he just didn’t see the point of waking up so early if he didn’t need to. 

The company cared more about hits on various video platforms and the amount of audience interaction than if he was working a regular nine-to-five. 

Except for tomorrow, apparently. 

Letting out a theatrical groan for his own amusement, Ryan tapped his thumbs across his phone screen, trying to come up with something funny. 

_Don’t forget that meeting tomorrow  
Stop boring your date with stupid facts and go to sleep_

Eh, good enough. No one expected comedy gold this late at night. 

There was the buzz of an answering text after only a couple of minutes. Ryan leaned over from brushing his teeth to check his phone, then let out a heavier than usual breath in a vague laugh. 

_> Shit  
>Forgot_

Following the words was a sad emoji, a sure sign that Shane was drunk. Ryan rolled his eyes at the man’s inability to hold his alcohol, then finished getting ready for bed. He was just sliding under his blankets when his phone buzzed again. 

A little surprised, he reached over and picked it up from the nightstand. He swiped the screen on, only really noticing that it was a new text from Shane. Without glasses or contacts, he had to squint to read the words. 

He didn’t understand it at first. He read it again. 

_> I want to walk in and see you completely naked, on your knees, with your hands behind your back. _

Ryan just stared for a moment. His mind was nothing but buzzing static. He actually jumped when a new text popped up. 

_> I could do anything to you, couldn’t I? _

His brain finally rebooted from its sext-induced shutdown and Ryan quickly replied, a giddy, embarrassed amusement making his thumbs shake as he typed out a text. Holy shit, once he got over the weirdness of the moment, this was going to be fucking hilarious. He was never going to let Shane live this down.

_Kinky. But you haven’t even taken me out to dinner_

A wait that was probably only ten seconds but felt so much longer.

_> Oh shit. Oops _

About five different laughing emojis followed. Wow, Shane must have been super drunk. Ryan let out a noise that was almost a giggle. Oh hell, it was definitely a wheeze. He let his head fall back on his pillow, his cheeks hurting from smiling so hard. Oh man, this was amazing. Shane was going to get so much shit for this. 

Ryan brought his phone up to check that he had set his alarm, then had another moment of pure incomprehension. 

_> Sorry man, I shouldn’t try to text two Ryans at once_

That-No. What?

Ryan stared at his phone, willing the words to make sense.

Two Ryans? What did that mean? Did that mean-No. No, he would know if Shane was gay. Or, well, bi. Because he’d seen Shane on dates with women, had met a girlfriend or two. A weird, uncomfortable ache started in his stomach. 

Had...Had Shane just never told him?

A memory surfaced and he let out a small sigh of relief. There had been a girl in his highschool named Ryann. He remembered that now. That must be what was going on. Shane was just too drunk to differentiate between the names. 

Feeling a little jittery, he decided not to reply and resolutely put his phone down, then closed his eyes to sleep. He was going to focus on the potential for teasing Shane and nothing else. 

_Absolutely nothing else_ , damn it. 

By the time he made it to work the next morning, he had managed to push away his brief confusion, forgetting it entirely, and was looking forward to mocking Shane relentlessly. 

He was a little surprised to see that Shane was already at his computer, staring blearily at the screen as it started to log in. The man definitely looked like he had been drinking the night before. He hadn't bothered with contacts and his stubble had gone from hipster chic to plain unkempt. Ryan was pretty certain he’d passed a few homeless people that morning that had looked more put together. 

“Good morning,” Ryan said in an obnoxiously cheerful voice. He sat down in front of his own computer, started it, then turned in his chair to give Shane a wide smile. 

Shane glanced up at him, his eyes narrowed. He raised one eyebrow. 

“So…” Ryan grinned as he trailed off. 

A long sigh that seemed to come from his very toes, then Shane closed his eyes. There was the hint of a reluctant smile at the corner of his mouth. “Just say it.”

“Nah,” Ryan said, still grinning. It was an evil expression, but he didn’t often have an opportunity to hold something over on Shane. “Everyone has sent an embarrassing text to the wrong person. I just made sure to screenshot it for the next time I need blackmail on you.”

“It wasn’t even all that graphic, I'm sure someone has worse blackmail on me,” Shane muttered. Ryan was delighted to see that there was the faintest shadow of red on the man’s cheekbones. _Yes, he’s embarrassed_!

Ryan held up his hand, eyes wide. “Whoa, no need for detail. Even that was enough to scar me for life. I prefer to think that you only have sex in the missionary position.”

“You often think about my sex life?”

“That-no, that’s not what I-” Ryan quickly tried to backtrack, then made an annoyed noise. “Shut up, Shane.”

“Hey, you’re the one that said it,” Shane replied, starting to look more alert and less like a zombie. Because of course making fun of Ryan would wake him up. The dick. 

Needing a change of subject _now_ , Ryan quickly asked, “So when do I get to meet Ryan Number Two?” He chose not to say it like ‘Ry-anne’, just to tease the man a little further. 

Shane let out a quiet laugh, likely at the name, then shrugged. “Probably won’t. He was just a guy I met at a bar. And I don’t know how happy he was about me telling him that I hate morning meetings in the middle of-” he made a vague hand gesture to convey ‘sexting.’

For a moment, Ryan felt completely stunned, frozen in the middle of pulling his laptop out of his bag. 

_He._

_He was just a guy I met at a bar._

There was no mistaking that sentence, no re-interpreting it. Shane met a man. And went on a date with him. And sent him dirty texts.

And Shane had said it so nonchalantly, as if it wasn’t a big deal, as if it wasn’t huge news. 

Realizing that Shane was waiting for a response, Ryan forced himself to laugh. It sounded off. He shoved his laptop back into his bag, then stood up so abruptly that the little knick knacks and figures next to his keyboard rattled. “I, uh, gotta-meeting,” Ryan said with a shaky smile. He swore he could feel eyes on the back of his neck as he hurried out of the large room.

He was pretty certain two or three people tried to talk to him on his way to the meeting room, but he was in such a daze that a ghost could have been doing the Charleston in front of him and he wouldn't have noticed. 

Fifteen minutes early for the meeting meant that he was one of the first ones there, and he took the opportunity to sit as far away from the front of the room as he could. Needing something to do with his hands, he set up his laptop on the table in front of him, his movements jittery. 

Ryan was overly aware of the fact that each new person that came into the room was making the conscious choice to leave the seat next to him empty. Because Shane always sat next to him in these situations. Because they were the closest thing to best friends that a person could have in the workplace. 

_A best friend would know if his friend was bi._

“TJ,” Ryan called as soon as the man entered the room, waving at the empty seat next to him. “I’ve got an idea I want to show you.”

A blatant lie, but he kept all of his notes and research copied onto his laptop, so he could probably bullshit his way through a conversation. TJ stared at him, looking a little surprised, then shrugged and sat next to him. 

While he was bringing up files and notes, Ryan became aware of Shane entering the room. From the corner of his eye, he could see Shane hesitate, then sit next to Keith. Even sitting down, the two men towered over the rest of the room’s occupants. 

Ryan idly wondered if Ryan Number Two was tall. Probably not as tall as Shane, since he was a skyscraper in disguise, but this other man could be taller than Ryan. Was that something Shane liked? He tried to picture that; long, masculine, hairy limbs tangling together-

“Ryan? You wanted to show me something?”

Feeling a flush start in his chest and go all the way up his face, Ryan snapped his eyes away from Shane to TJ, who was giving him a weird look. “Uh, y-yeah,” he stuttered, tapping mindless at his laptop. He wasn’t even sure what he was bringing up on the screen. 

Luckily for him, a couple of their bosses and execs chose that moment to walk into the room, so he didn’t have to stumble his way through a half-assed made up story. 

Meetings like this happened every couple of weeks, giving everyone an opportunity to learn what was going on in the building. Their little section of BuzzFeed was only a fraction of the people that worked for the company, but there was still a ton of content being produced every day. There was just no way to keep up with everything and still get work done. So this was an chance for the various groups to explain what they had been doing, what had been going well, and what they were hoping to accomplish in the upcoming days. 

Ryan usually found these meetings interesting. At the very least, interesting enough to keep his attention. He liked knowing what everyone was doing and it was a good way to know which articles and videos he _should_ watch. But words kept floating through his head, distracting him.

_Completely naked, on your knees._

_Anything._

Shane was right, the texts hadn’t been particularly graphic. The implication of those words, however, was staggering. They were _kinky_.

Not that he thought they were wildly kinky or anything. He had access to the internet, he knew what people got up to. But he had never put Shane in that context before. It was mind-boggling. 

He once had a girlfriend who had been into some light submission stuff. Mostly she just liked being blindfolded and having her wrists held down, but he had enjoyed ordering her around once or twice. It added a little bit of variety to sex, something to think about. 

But the idea of _Shane_ being the one to order someone - _a man_ \- around? Ryan was pretty sure his brain was on the verge of melting. He thought about it, what it would be like to be on his knees, to have to look so far up to meet Shane’s eyes. Would-would he be gentle? Or rough? Would he take command or just offer suggestions?

A warm, hazy feeling pooled low in his gut and his heart started to pound harder. Would Shane make him do _things_? His ears felt like they were burning, embarrassed that even in his own head he couldn’t bring himself to articulate what ‘things’ were.

“Ryan? Shane? You guys have anything to add?”

Ryan looked up from the spot on the table he had been staring at, abruptly realizing exactly what he had been thinking about. He felt like his face caught on fire from how hard he blushed. Instinctively, he turned wide eyes towards Shane, who was staring at him with a frown furrowing his brows. 

There was a long awkward pause, then Shane was the one to answer. “We’re putting up the first True Crime episode of the season next week. So, uh, check it out to see if we solved any old crimes, I guess.” His smile was a poor attempt at his usual joking manner.

Ryan could feel how everyone at the table was looking at him, since he was usually the one to talk during meetings like this. But he couldn't bring himself to open his mouth. 

Just what the fuck had he been thinking?

When the meeting ended, Ryan grabbed his laptop and nearly sprinted out of the room. By the time Shane made it back towards their computers, Ryan had both his computer and laptop turned on and his headphones over his ears. He was doing his utmost to project ‘super busy, can’t talk’. 

In his peripheral vision, he could see how Shane paused next to his chair. He kept his eyes forward, clicking through a sound editing program, even though his sound wasn’t on. After a few seconds, Shane sighed, then sat down in front of his own computer. 

Ryan started chewing on one fingernail, his brain unable to focus for more than a minute. He couldn’t concentrate at all, his mind hopping back and forth from the revelation that Shane liked men to wondering about being submissive in bed. 

Neither were concepts that he had ever thought about before. 

Had Shane told Ryan he was bi and he just didn’t remember? There had been a few times where he had been astoundingly drunk around Shane, but he felt like the man wouldn’t have that kind of important conversation if Ryan was too drunk to stand. 

So why had Shane acted so casually about going on a date with a man? He had to have thought that Ryan knew. 

Then Ryan’s mind dropped that subject and merrily skipped right back to thinking about being naked. Possibly with a naked Shane. 

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Shane typing, his long fingers like spider legs as they danced across the keyboard. Why the hell was he suddenly finding that goofball attractive? God, Ryan felt like he was in high school all over again, having to hide his reaction to thoughts about a person while sitting next to that person. 

This wasn’t the first time he had felt attraction to another man, so he wasn’t new to the idea. He just had a tendency to fall for straight men, and it was pointless to flirt with them. Hell, upon first meeting Shane, he had developed a small crush on him from day one. But then they had become friends and the crush went away.

Except that Shane wasn’t completely straight, apparently. 

_Oh. Oh, shit._

Ryan’s eyes went wide. He _could_ have flirted with Shane all those years ago. 

_Fuck._

Some kind of melancholy humor made him laugh softly to himself. Well, he had screwed that chance up. Despite all of these new revelations, there was no way that Shane could think of him as anything more than a friend, now. There had been far too many situations where he could have made a move if he had been interested in Ryan. For fuck’s sake, they’d shared beds together. 

Okay, no, he wasn’t going to think about that while at work. 

“Ryan?”

Jumping like he’d been caught with his hand down his pants, Ryan nearly fell out of his chair. He turned wide eyes towards Shane, who had both eyebrows up and was smiling in amused surprise. “ ‘the fuck? Don’t scare me like that!”

“I said your name three times, I don’t know what more you want me to do.”

Ryan scowled, ignoring the heat in his face and the way his heart felt like it was trying to beat out of his chest. “What do you want?”

Alright, that might have been a little harsher than he intended. 

Shane’s smile fell away. He tilted his head, looking at Ryan for a long moment. “I was going to ask if you wanted to go get lunch,” he said slowly. Almost carefully. 

“No,” Ryan said too quickly. There was no way he could fake a normal conversation right now. “I uh, want to get this done.”

A pause. Shane stood, then leaned over him to look at his computer screen. “Uh huh. The script that you’ve written two lines of.”

Ryan had never been so aware of Shane’s presence before, the way his deodorant smelled. _What the fuck, I’m smelling him now?_ “Yeah, clearly I need to work on it.”

He didn’t look up because he didn’t want to see Shane’s expression. 

“Alright,” Shane finally said. He quietly turned and walked away. 

Letting out a sigh of guilty relief, Ryan propped his elbows up on the table just so he could bury his head in his hands. What the fuck was he doing? Just because he found out that Shane was bi, it didn’t give him the right to act like this. Like he was suddenly having some big gay epiphany and couldn’t handle it. It wasn’t even true, and it wasn’t fair to Shane. It wasn’t fair to himself. 

It was too late to have those kind of feelings for his best friend. He just needed to move on.

Now to convince his body of that. 

Shane didn’t come back to his computer until late in the afternoon. Ryan tried not to feel responsible for that. With a kind of mental discipline that he hadn’t even been aware he possessed, he forced himself to pay attention to the screen in front of him. This script needed to be done by next week, and staring at his screen for hours on end wasn’t going to accomplish anything. 

When he surfaced from his desperate attempt to distract himself with work, it was long past dinner time. His stomach grumbled at him, unhappy that the only thing he’d eaten all day had been a couple of protein bars that had been in his bag and a banana from the break room. 

The room wasn’t empty, since there was always somebody working, but there was only a bare handful of people. And Shane. The man was leaning back in his chair, scrolling through something on his phone. Probably Twitter, since he seemed to follow half the known world. 

Ryan took off his headphones and Shane looked up. They watched each other for a moment, a tension between them that Ryan wasn’t sure what to do with. 

“Wow, it’s pretty late,” Ryan said lamely. 

“Yeah,” was the cool reply. 

Okay, then. 

“Guess I’d better head home, get something to eat.” Ryan started gathering his things to put into his bag, but Shane’s voice interrupted him. 

“So why have you been trying to avoid me all day?”

Ryan cringed, which he knew it was the wrong reaction to have even as he did it. “Um, I’ve been right here since the meeting?”

That got him an annoyed eye roll. “Because your computer is here. I’m honestly surprised you didn’t try to say you were sick.”

_Shit, that would have been a good idea._

“I don't know what you’re talking about,” he said, trying to hide how his voice wanted to go high-pitched. He stood up, slinging the bag strap over his shoulder, clutching it in his hands to hide how they were shaking. 

He really didn’t want to start some kind of confrontation. Leave it to Shane to ignore the unspoken guy rule to leave emotional shit alone. 

“Is this because of the text?”

Ryan blinked at him, uncomprehending. Then- “What? No!” _Yes_. “I mean, there’s nothing going on. I was just busy all day.”

“Ryan,” Shane said, disappointment thick in his name. “Are you really that uncomfortable around me now? Just because of a stupid accidental text?”

There was a thin thread of actual hurt under the disappointment. 

Damn it, he hadn’t meant to make Shane feel bad. None of this was his fault. 

His hold on his bag strap tightened. Ryan took a deep breath, staring resolutely at his feet. This was going to make him sound so stupid. “I didn’t know you were bi,” he said to the ground, words coming out so fast that they jumbled together. 

There was a silence so long that he risked a quick glance up. Shane was staring at him like he’d never seen him before. His expressive face was twisted into some sort of incredulous disbelief. “You’ve seen me with men. You’ve met men I was dating! Don’t you remember Luke? ”

Ryan tilted his head to the side, thinking, then a memory came to him. “You were dating that guy?!” His voice cracked and he quickly lowered his voice, hoping Shane was the only one that had heard that. “I thought that was just some asshole friend of yours!”

“A friend that I met on a dating app, Ryan? Really?”

The only thing he could do was sputter out a series of sounds that were almost words in an attempt to convey how very confused he was. He hoped the accompanying hand gestures helped. 

Shane stared at him for a long, awkward moment. Then his mouth curled into a scowl and his brow furrowed in a look of actual anger. He stood up from his chair, suddenly looming. Intentional or not, his height was intimidating at times. Fuck, Ryan had only seen Shane truly angry a couple times before this. “Don’t tell me that you have a problem with me being bi.”

Ryan’s mouth fell open. “I work at _BuzzFeed_. Have you _met_ half the people here?”

“There are plenty of people that are fine with homosexuality but think being bi is some sort of cry for attention.

There was no plan behind his next words. He didn’t think about them or even know he was about to say them. They just sort of fell out. “That would be pretty hypocritical of me, since I’m-” His brain caught up with his mouth before he could say the word, but the damage was already done. 

Shane swayed backwards, like he had actually been hit. There was still anger there, but now his expression was downright hurt. “You’re bi? And you never told me? What the fuck, Ryan? Did you think I wouldn’t understand?”

Ryan knew, even as he opened his mouth, that he should explain himself. That he should tell Shane that he wasn’t sure what he was, if he was bi or just…mostly straight. Was that even a thing? But he had never talked to anyone about this, never even looked on the internet. There was this quiet dread of unexplainable embarrassment, a sense of shame that he didn’t even know what he was. 

So of course, he went on the offensive. “Well you never told me!”

“I thought you knew!”

The following silence was so awkward and thick with tension that Ryan found himself babbling just to fill it. “Look, I’m sorry that I must have missed something or maybe I just...I don’t know, heteronormativity or whatever the word is, I assumed those men were just friends, so it really confused me that you were so casual about going on a date with a guy. And I’m sorry that I was a dick all day, but I didn’t even know I had the option and I’ve been trying to deal with the fact that I lost my chan-” He snapped his mouth closed so fast that his teeth clacked together. 

Fuck. _Fuck_. Why the hell was he able to blurt that out but couldn’t bring himself to explain his sexuality?

Usually, Ryan could read Shane’s face. Between the fact that Shane had stupidly expressive features and the fact that they had been friends for years, he could always figure out what the man was thinking and feeling. 

He had no idea what Shane’s current expression was. 

The man tilted his head. “The option?”

Ryan knew he probably looked like he was terrified, and for a moment he was frozen with indecision. An impulse, a stupid urge developed by a lifetime of watching too many movies, told him that there was one thing he could try. 

Not that he actually thought this would work, since real life was often a disappointing mess, but he also trusted Shane. The worst that could happen would be getting mocked for eternity. 

So Ryan screwed up his courage, marched up to Shane, and kissed him. 

It was terrible from the start. Since Shane just stood there in confusion and did nothing to accommodate him, Ryan had to stand on his toes to even reach the man's face. His lips fell more in the general vicinity of Shane's chin than his mouth, and both froze in that position for a long awkward moment. 

Ryan gave himself enough time to register the prickly feel of stubble, the warmth of skin, then he fell back on his heels. 

All in all, it actually wasn't the worst first kiss he'd ever tried. 

Shane stared down at him, his eyebrows so far up in surprise that it should have been comical. Ryan glared back, fully aware that he was pouting but doing nothing to stop it. It was extremely tempting to say 'so there,’ but that would be a little too much like throwing a tantrum, even for him. 

“Sorry,” he muttered, taking a step back and looking down. “If I had known, I'd have made a move the day you first agreed to go see a movie with me.”

Shane made a quiet, stunned noise, and Ryan could hear him draw in a breath to speak. Then Shane's phone started vibrating against his keyboard. 

Well, that was his cue to leave. He did an odd little nod of his head, then turned and walked away. 

Ryan felt a little sick to his stomach, a little shaky, but there was also a sense of relief. It was out in the open now, his inappropriate attraction to Shane. It was oddly freeing. Sure, things between them would no doubt be weird for a bit, but he had faith that they would be able to move on and go back to being 'the boys’. Neither of them would let a misunderstanding and a crush from the past ruin their friendship. 

“Ryan,” Shane said, and he hesitated midstep. But then Shane lowered his voice and kept talking, and Ryan realized that he was talking on the phone to, well, the other Ryan. 

Ah, jealousy was not something he needed to add to his current mix of emotions. 

He made his way out of the building and into the parking lot, glad that the only person he ran into was the security guard at the front desk. Polite small talk was not something he would be able to manage right now. 

Just as he reached his car, there was the sound of running footsteps behind him, then a breathless, “The hell kind of half-assed Disney bullshit was that?”

Ryan nearly dropped his keys. He looked over his shoulder, wide-eyed. “What?”

Shane was smiling at him, which was a good thing, but it was a weirdly tense smile. The man looked a little manic. “I don’t know if there was supposed to be a swell of orchestral music or what, but you’ve got to give a guy time to react, Ryan.”

Turning to face him, Ryan pressed back against his car door. “I don’t-”

“If you’re going to try the romance movie third act kiss, you should warn me.” 

Ryan narrowed his eyes, pursing his lips together in a frown to hide how embarrassed he was. “That wasn’t what-” his words were choked off mid sentence when Shane suddenly stepped into his space and leaned down. 

Oh. 

Oh, okay, that was a better kiss. 

Shane was a warm, electric presence, his hands a grounding weight on Ryan’s shoulders. With the taller man cooperating, it was so much easier for Ryan to find the right angle, to slot their mouths together like they had been doing this for years. It was the same as kissing a woman, but at the same time it was wildly different.

The soft brush of lips, the mingling of breath, and the acute awareness of just how _close_ they were, it was all familiar. But the scratch of stubble, the way Ryan had to tilt his head up. That was all new. 

And he had never kissed a woman for the first time who had so quickly escalated to using tongue. It was actually incredibly hot. The slide of Shane's tongue across his, then a hint of teeth made Ryan produce a noise that was almost a whimper. 

He could feel how Shane smiled, then the man pulled back. He looked downright smug. Everything in Ryan wanted to reach up and pull Shane back down, but there was a question eating at the back of his mind.

“What about uh, Ryan Number Two?”

Shane blinked, then he sighed, looking profoundly exasperated. “We literally went on one date that ended after dinner. He’s not particularly upset that I broke it off.”

A peculiar feeling of cautious hope made Ryan's heart trip. “You did?”

His expression softening, Shane said, “Of course I did. I wasn't going to let this opportunity pass.” Then he smiled wide, that teasing, mocking grin that Ryan both loved and hated. “Don't tell me all of this was because you were jealous I went out with another Ryan?”

“Hey, there's only one Ryan Bergara in LA, big guy,” Ryan said with a giddy little smile. “Accept no substitutes.” 

Shane huffed a small, amused laugh. “You arrogant dick.” 

Ryan shut him up with a kiss.

________________________________________________________ 

Emotionally, dating Shane was just as wonderful and _infuriating_ as he might have suspected. If he had ever thought about it seriously. The majority of the time, Shane was a-a _sweetheart_ , but every once in awhile, some little imp of perversion would cause him to make Ryan’s life a living hell. 

So in that regard, nothing much actually changed between the two of them. There was a lot more casual touching and sappy looks, but even in private, it still felt like hanging out with his best friend. 

Sexually, however, Ryan was pretty sure he was blue balling himself so hard that he was a little worried he was going to do permanent damage. Kissing was fine, making out was _great_ , but once hands started to wander, he panicked.

The thing was, he was pretty sure he was bi, but it was a theoretical concept more than anything else. He had never actually done anything with a man before, and while he was aware that most men didn't particularly care how skilled their partner was, he wanted to be good at it, damn it.

When Shane started to kiss down his neck or sneak his hands under clothes, Ryan panicked not out of some fear of gay sex, but _what if he screwed up_? He knew it was a stupid thing to worry about and he knew he could talk to Shane about it, but at this point, he'd been casually pretending that dating a man wasn't new to him for so long that it felt like he'd be lying to bring it up now. 

So far, Shane hadn't said anything, but it was only a matter of time. There was only so often that he could distract the man with a stupid conversation or say that they needed to be up early for work. 

Ryan needed to do something. And those stupid, fairly tame, text messages gave him an idea. An idea that he couldn’t stop thinking about. Why not just jump in the deep end? Why not kill two birds with one stone? He could initiate sex _and_ act out some of the fantasies that had been running in the back of his head since he had first read those texts.

Late one Friday, when both of them were actually at their computers and not squirreled away in a studio somewhere, he leaned over to Shane and said without warning, “I need your apartment key.”

Shane slowly turned his head to look at him, one eyebrow arched. “It doesn’t count as breaking in if I just give you my keys.”

Making a ‘gimme’ gesture with his hand, Ryan glared, hoping to hide how jittery he was. “It’s for a thing. A surprise. I can’t tell you.”

A narrow-eyed look was directed towards him, but Shane reached into his pocket anyways. “Is this some elaborate prank to lock me out of my own apartment? Or am I going to walk in to find all of my furniture glued to the ceiling?”

Nerves made Ryan’s smile too big, his sudden bark of laughter too loud. “That would be awesome, but how would I even do that by myself?”

Shane smiled at him, his expression soft and affectionate as he worked a key off of his keyring, then handed it to Ryan. That level of trust almost made Ryan kiss him right there, despite the fact that they were trying to be subtle in the workplace. “So the muscles are just for show?”

“Fuck you,” Ryan replied, his fond tone belying the words. 

The response he got was a quiet chuckle and a too-attractive wink. Damn Shane and his charming face. 

Ryan managed to drive to Shane's apartment without thinking about anything, but the walk up to his door was so nerve-wracking that he had to stop just to take a couple of breaths. He did feel a little bit like a thief as he unlocked the door and stepped inside, but he pushed the feeling away. It wasn't like he had never been here before. 

That weirdly pleasant ache of fluttery, nervous anticipation wound low in his stomach, building with each passing moment as he used Shane's shower and carefully folded his clothes, drawing each action out so that he would have something to focus on. 

When he got the text that Shane was nearly there, he almost changed his mind, tempted to run away and hide. Like the adult that he was. 

_I could do anything to you._

The background arousal that had been a low thrum throughout the day surged, and he forced himself to take off the towel that he had wrapped around his waist. Walking naked around someone else’s apartment was an eerie sensation, but it only added to the mix of lust and tension. 

A deep breath through his nose. 

Ryan slowly dropped to his knees in direct sight of the door. He put his arms behind his back, then sank down until he was resting on his feet. The cheap carpet pressed into his skin, and he was all too aware of how his heels dug into his ass. And how his dick and balls were just there. Out in the open. He’d never felt so self-conscious and there wasn’t even anyone there. 

Time to seemed to still, the buzz of energy running through his veins making him start tapping on his own wrist. He dreaded Shane’s arrival as much as he longed for it. 

_Should have grabbed my phone._

The sound of footsteps in the hallway, a light knock on the door. 

_Fuck, fuck, I’m not ready-_

A quiet click as the doorknob turned, Shane's voice loudly saying, “Alright, what did you do? Post-it notes everywhere? Bucket above-” 

When he had thought about this, Ryan had constructed all manner of suave, sexy one-liners in his head. But in the moment, all he could do was stare, eyes wide. He dug his nails into his wrist to stop the fine tremor going down his arms. 

Shane was equally wordless, his expression so surprised and confused that it would have hilarious in other circumstances. Then the situation seemed to dawn on him and he quickly stepped inside and shut the door, which Ryan definitely appreciated. The neighbors didn't need to see him like this. 

The sound of the lock turning sent a rush of tingling shivers up his spine.

“Oh, Ryan…” Shane breathed. 

Ryan looked down, unable to meet his gaze any longer.

“You've been thinking about that text this whole time, haven't you?”

Shane sounded stunned, a wondering tone to his voice that made Ryan flush. His instinct was to deflect, to say something full of snark and sarcasm. But something held back that impulse. He kept his mouth shut, his shoulders curling forward slightly. 

Footsteps. Shoes barely a handful of inches from his knees. A rustle of clothing, a hand lightly brushing through his still damp hair. He leaned into the touch without meaning to. 

“Ryan, look at me.”

He managed to bring his eyes up to Shane's chest, but the knowledge that he was completely naked in front of a fully clothed man was abruptly all he could think about. 

“Ryan.” This time it was a warning. 

Meeting Shane's gaze right then was one of the bravest things Ryan thought he'd ever done.

Shane didn't seemed turned off or disgusted, at least. His expression was gentle, but his eyes were dark and focused. Licking his lips, leaving them wet and shiny, Shane quietly asked, “Have you done this before?”

Ryan opened his mouth, but his voice came out cracked and rasping, the word lost. He had to clear his throat, and the embarrassment made him drop his eyes again. “No,” he repeated hoarsely.

The hand that had been gently petting his hair flexed against his scalp briefly, then Shane made a soft little noise that was almost a whimper.

“Fuck,” Shane said on a breath. “Okay. We'll go slow. Anything you don't like, you tell me. Understand?”

Ryan nodded, the words sparking a new wave of nervous excitement. 

“Answer out loud, Ryan.”

He tightened his grip on his wrist, then quietly said, “Yes.”

“Close your eyes and don't move. I'll be right back, okay little guy?”

A hint of annoyance at the pet name was quickly shoved aside. Shane was running the show at the moment. And that thought was now more arousing than ever. “Okay.”

Ryan risked a quick glance up, and was comforted to see not a single ounce of mockery on Shane's face. Just an intense focus. He closed his eyes and let out a long breath. 

He could hear Shane walk away, farther into the apartment. The sound of a bag being set down, some rustling. General movements, then running water. Softer footsteps now, bare feet against carpet. 

Abruptly, Ryan realized that Shane was probably looking at him. His skin prickled, the tiny hairs at the back of his neck raising. He had to bite his cheek to hold back the shudder. The tight feeling of anticipation in his stomach was so intense that he was verging on nauseous, but he found himself longing for Shane to touch him. To speak. To do _something_. 

“Ryan,” Shane said, from closer than he was expecting. He startled, then actually jerked back a little when fingertips grazed his shoulder. 

“Shh, easy.”

‘I’m not a dog’ was on the tip of Ryan’s tongue, but he swallowed the words. Something about the gentle way Shane had said it was more comforting than it had any right to be. Those fingers caressed down his arm, a firm touch that he felt throughout his body. It was as if his nerves were set on fire wherever Shane went. 

The flat of Shane’s palm wrapped around his bicep and it was instinct for him to flex the muscle under that grip. A faint breath of a laugh from above him, then a murmured, “Showoff.” Fingertips moved up, trailed across his collarbone, then up the tendons of his throat. That hand settled against the side of his neck, and- God, had he ever noticed just how large Shane’s hand was? It felt like it spanned most of his neck. 

Shane gently pushed with his thumb, tilting Ryan’s head up. “You are rather pretty like this,” Shane said, faint possessive approval in his voice. 

Ryan resisted the urge to squirm, oddly pleased by the compliment even as he felt warmth spread across his cheeks. Fuck, he really wanted to see Shane’s face right now, to gauge what the man was thinking. Yet there was something comforting in the darkness behind his eyelids. It made it easier for him to just let Shane do what he wanted. 

The thumb on his jaw moved up, a gentle touch that his entire being was suddenly focused on. A caress across his lower lip, then pressure at the corner of his mouth.

“Open,” came the soft command. 

_Oh_. Oh, that was... _Yes_.

A wave of arousal so strong that he could feel his cock start to fill out against his thigh, a sudden needy, incessant weight. Ryan opened his mouth just enough to accept the thumb now pressing across his teeth, against his tongue. He breathed out, a whimper in the exhale, then _had_ to lick across the warm skin, _had_ to suck. Shane’s thumb was surprisingly smooth and tasted faintly of soap. It was amazing. Shane made a rough little noise at the action and that was even better. He had never been able to do anything like this with a man before and that knowledge was breaking him in such an incredible way. 

Even just the thought was embarrassing, but he had never _tasted_ a man before. Never felt the inherent strength against his skin, never heard such a deep, masculine sound of satisfaction from something _he_ had done. 

In his experience, women were soft and small, gentle even when aggressive. They were warm and delicate and he had never had a problem with that. He liked it, he really did. But this. This was new. Shane would be able to hold him down, to control him. The idea was such a turn on that he almost didn’t know what to do with himself. 

There was the sound of skin on cloth, the clink of a belt buckle, a zipper. 

Ryan fucking shivered. His hold on his own wrists had been mostly relaxed since Shane had first told him to close his eyes, but now he clutched convulsively, his nails digging into skin. 

Shane withdrew his thumb, then tangled his fingers in Ryan’s hair, forcing his head farther back. A shuffle, then Shane’s presence was so close he could feel it. His heart was a wild pounding beat in his chest, and he could hear himself panting shallowly, but he couldn’t bring himself to calm down. 

Velvety soft skin against his lower lip, a hint of moisture. _That’s a penis_ , he thought to himself inanely, then fucking giggled, the sound high-pitched and strained. 

“Ryan,” Shane said, exasperated. 

He didn’t have the words to explain that the laugh was from his own nerves and not from anything actually funny, so in response, Ryan just went for it. He opened his mouth and licked, swiping the flat of his tongue across the head of Shane’s cock and the knowledge of what he had just done was so distracting that he didn’t really register the sensation. Obviously he had to do it again. 

The same faint taste of soap, the universal taste of skin. But there was something more, something vaguely bitter. The tip of his tongue slid from ridge to slit, and curiosity made him press against the spot, trying to get more of that taste. Shane let out a stuttering breath.

Encouraged by the noise, Ryan tilted his head forward, as much as the hand in his hair would allow, and wrapped his lips around Shane's cock. He hesitated, suddenly unsure what to do with the soft, yet firm weight on his tongue. Belatedly, he remembered that teeth could be bad, and tried to curl his lips over his teeth, stopping because they were too dry. He went to lick his lips, but there was a cock in the way and suddenly he was just frustrated. 

Damnit, this wasn't a difficult thing to do, he'd received enough blowjobs to know that. Sure, some people were better than others, but it wasn't exactly rocket science. Ryan made an annoyed noise without realizing it, trying to figure out how to get moisture to his lips, when Shane took a step back. He tried to follow, tried to keep contact with Shane’s cock, but the hand on his head kept him still. 

“Ryan,” Shane sounded hesitant. He smoothed his hand down the back of Ryan’s skull, then tenderly cupped the edge of his jaw. “Have you...Have you ever done anything with a man?”

Intense, abrupt embarrassment hit him so hard that Ryan could do nothing for a frozen moment. _Is it really that obvious_? Well, that was fucking _mortifying_. Suddenly thankful that he couldn’t see Shane’s expression right now, he hunched in on himself as well as he could. 

“Answer me.”

Ryan shook his head, a slow back and forth that was hindered by the fingers at his jaw. 

“Out loud.”

God, that shouldn’t have been sexy. Especially in such an humiliating situation.

“No,” he whispered so softly that even he couldn’t hear it. He cleared his throat, then said it again, louder.

A long sigh. “Oh, Ryan…”

“I’m sorry,” he said, not entirely sure what he was apologizing for, but he didn’t like that vaguely disappointed tone. 

“No, that-” There was the rustle of fabric, movement, and Shane must have kneeled, because his voice was suddenly much closer. “Look at me.”

Ryan had to breath in through his nose, a long calming breath, before he could will himself to open his eyes. Shane was right there, looking so gentle and fond that Ryan almost threw himself forward for a hug. “You don’t have to apologize,” the man said softly. “I just want to know why you didn’t tell me.”

“I…” Ryan couldn’t look away from those beautiful eyes, even though he wanted to. “I kind of implied that I was bi? But it was all kind of theoretical and I didn’t actually know? I just-” Okay, this was going to get too emotional, but fuck it. “-I knew I wanted you.”

Shane made a quiet noise in the back of his throat. “Fuck, Ryan.” He closed his eyes briefly, a sweep of lashes that was mesmerizing, then he shook his head in a bemused way. “You should have said something.”

Ryan slanted his gaze away. “Kind of thought I could wing it.”

Leaning forward until his forehead was resting against Ryan’s, Shane laughed, a strained, affectionate sound. “The man who researches everything obsessively thought he could wing it?”

“Look, straight porn led me astray a few times already, I wasn’t going to make the same mistake with gay porn.”

Shane snorted. “I think I need to hear this story. Maybe we should pause this whole-” he waved his hands around, “-situation and talk about it.” He started to gather himself to stand up. 

Ryan leaned forward, hands shooting out to grab onto Shane’s wrists, stopping the man. His shoulders and arms ached from the sudden movement out of their previous locked state, but he ignored the burn. “Wait, we don’t have to stop. I was fine. I- Well, I was liking it. Everything. That was going on.”

_Fuck, real articulate there._

“Really?” Shane looked surprised, but sounded a little eager, which Ryan took as a good sign. “I’m not going to stop you from giving me a blowjob, because I’m not insane, but the, uh, ordering you around is probably a bit much for your first time.”

It was hard not to say something stupid about it not being his first time, but he didn’t want to devolve into an argument over semantics when they could be doing something much better. “Shane, it was fine. I liked it.”

“Are you sure?”

A deep breath, then Ryan looked up through his lashes, forcing his voice to go breathless and shaky. Not that he had to try that hard, since he already felt like he was going to tremble out of his skin. “Please?”

There was a muttered swear, then Shane was kissing him, a possessive clash of lips and tongues that Ryan could wholeheartedly get behind. His mouth was forced wider, then it felt like Shane was trying to fuck his throat with his tongue and that made Ryan shudder, clutching desperately at Shane’s arms. When they pulled away from each other to breathe, they were both panting and wide-eyed, lips wet and bruised. 

“Tell me what to do.”

Shane inhaled sharply, but tried to deflect. “Ryan, we really don’t have to keep doing that-”

“Please,” he said again and he could feel Shane fucking shiver under his hands. Fuck, if he had known Shane would respond like that, he would have tried saying ‘please’ years ago. 

“Alright,” Shane said, searching his eyes. Then he nodded. And stood up. Ryan had a second to be amused that Shane’s dick had been out the whole time, then there were fingers tangled harshly into his hair, forcing his head back. It was nothing like the caress it had been earlier. “You’re such a brat, Ryan. Open your mouth. Hands behind your back.”

Ryan followed both commands instantly, all the squirmy, gooey, warm emotions pushed away in favor of a strong surge of _want_. 

Shane made a little noise of approval that shouldn’t have affected Ryan, but damn if he didn’t feel a little proud. “You can keep your eyes open. I want to see them when I’m fucking your throat. 

_Oh._

He had no idea what had brought that on, but he liked it to a surprising degree. 

“So competitive. You couldn’t admit to being bad at something, could you?” Shane fucking _purred_ , pressing his cock into Ryan’s mouth to stop him from saying anything. It was an effective tactic. 

This was a lot farther than Shane had gone before, the tip pressing into the roof of Ryan’s mouth. He swallowed convulsively, tongue pushing that warm weight up. Shane had gone a bit soft during their conversation, but that was rapidly changing. Ryan could _feel_ him getting heavier, firmer. Longer. And that thought was intimidating. He wasn’t sure he could handle much more than was already in his mouth. 

“Breathe through your nose if you can,” Shane said, almost casually. But there was a spark to his eyes that made Ryan follow the instruction. When Shane was satisfied that he was doing what he had been told, he _petted_ Ryan, fingers scratching across his scalp like he was a dog. “Close your lips. Careful with your teeth.”

With his mouth closed, Shane’s cock felt even bigger. It didn’t feel like there was any room and it was awkward holding his jaw apart but keeping his lips closed. Shane’s other hand was wrapped around the base of his cock and Ryan realized that it would look like the man was fucking feeding him his dick. The awkwardness was quickly forgotten. 

“Move your tongue.”

Ryan couldn’t exactly lick like this, but he drew the flat of his tongue back, curling it up under Shane’s tip. The sensation was oddly smooth and surprisingly good. So he did it again. He noticed that he could actually feel the thick vein that ran along the underside of the cock and that was simply fascinating. He’d never thought he would be able to feel so much. 

“ _Fuck_ ,” Shane muttered. “Just like that.”

Taking that as encouragement, Ryan repeated the action a few more times, then decided to get creative. He drew his head back, just a little, then forward, sliding his lips along soft skin. And wow, that got a good reaction, even if it did make his jaw ache a little. 

“I’m going to thrust, okay? Not all the way, you’ll be able to handle it.”

Ryan had to shut his eyes for a moment, the realization of what they were doing suddenly overwhelming. Hearing those words, knowing it was _Shane_ taking control of him, using him, it was amazing. He gathered himself, then sat up a little straighter, making it easier for Shane to maneuver. 

Shane tilted his hips, slowly pressing forward. It was barely a couple of inches, but the tip pressed against the back of Ryan's throat and he had to hold himself still against the need to cough. A small pause, then Shane started a slow, gentle rhythm.

Once he got used to the feeling, Ryan found that he could flex his tongue without much effort, pressing it against the cock sliding back and forth in his mouth. Shane's faint, surprised groan gave him the confidence to take a deep breath, tighten his lips, then _suck_. 

That got an actual grunt of pleasure out of Shane, and the fingers in his hair tugged him forward, farther on to Shane's cock. 

“I'm not going to last long if you keep doing that,” Shane said in that same conversational tone, as if he wasn't currently rocking his hips in increasingly faster thrusts. “Is that what you want? Do you want me to come in your mouth?”

Following an urge he had never felt before, Ryan rolled his eyes up to meet Shane’s gaze as best he could, then he _moaned_. He could feel the cock in his mouth grow harder and wasn’t that a fascinating sensation?

Feeling incredibly daring, even though it should have been a simple thing, Ryan let go of his own wrists, bringing his hands up to wrap them around the back of Shane’s thighs. The touch of jeans under his fingertips just added to the haze of lust. He had forgotten for a wild moment that he was completely naked and Shane was still mostly clothed. 

He pulled, urging Shane forward. The man laughed quietly, even as he followed the movement. “I didn’t tell you you could do that,” Shane warned, but Ryan didn’t take it too seriously. He was drunk on the taste of Shane, the smell of him, the way he felt in his mouth. He bobbed his head forward, not stopping until his lips hit Shane’s fingers. 

There was nothing he could do to stop the gagging, but it wasn’t enough to make him slow down. He did it again and again, loving the way Shane started panting, the way the fingers in his hair had spread out to cup the back of his head, steadily pulling him forward. 

“Next time,” Shane gasped, finally sounding affected. “I’m going to to tie your hands to something so that you _can’t_ touch anything.” 

Something about the promise of there being a next time made Ryan whimper. Or maybe it was the image of being tied down. He clutched at Shane’s legs, then did his best to combine moving his tongue with Shane’s thrusts. 

Shane let go of his cock to brace himself on Ryan’s shoulder. The sudden weight pressing down on his shoulder was as much a warning as the half-gasped, “Fuck, I-”

He thrust, too far, too hard, but Ryan was too caught by the idea of choking on Shane’s cock to try and stop him. He just loosened his jaw as much as he could and took it. There were tears in his eyes and saliva dripping from the corners of his mouth, but his only thought was to finish this properly. The hand on his shoulder tightened, then Shane moaned brokenly and warm, bitter liquid flooded Ryan’s mouth. 

It was instinct to swallow, and the texture wasn’t like anything he’d ever experienced before. The taste, the slippery quality, it wasn’t good, but it wasn’t terrible. Curious, he drug his tongue into his mouth, sliding it against softening flesh. 

Shane quietly gasped, actually wobbling a little, then drew back, his cock slipping out of Ryan’s mouth. Ryan stared up at him, his jaw aching, his heart still pounding, and his own erection a thick line along his thigh. He had been distracted earlier, but now he wanted nothing more than a hand on his cock. His or Shane’s, it didn’t matter.

Ryan started to reach down, but Shane made a disapproving noise. 

“Wait. Come here,” Shane said, grabbing Ryan’s hands and pulling him to his feet. Ryan stumbled, knees weak and sore, but Shane caught him. The man pulled him into a deep kiss, Ryan desperate, Shane slow and languid. 

“I’ve never been so happy to have sent a sext to the wrong person,” Shane muttered in a distracted voice when they broke for air.

“Shut up, Shane,” Ryan _whined_ , panting and pressing closer, the drag of Shane’s clothes almost torturous on his naked skin. “Fucking touch me already.”

Shane chuckled, a deep sound from low in his chest. “What makes you think I’m done?”

“But you-” Ryan blinked, taken aback by the downright filthy smile on the man’s face. 

“I have _plans_ , Ryan,” Shane breathed, the words whispering warm across his ear. “It’s going to be a long night for you.”

Oh.

 _Oh_.

“Then what are you waiting for?”

________________________________________________________ 

**Author's Note:**

> Haha, oh man. This is why I need practice. 
> 
> This was just a breather between multi-chapter fics, but hopefully it entertained somebody!
> 
>  
> 
> Next up; Demon Shane.


End file.
